The Invincible Read online

  Once more Rohan felt amazement, this time at Horpach’s appearance. The astrogator had thrown over his shoulders the snow-white dress overcoat which he had last worn during the farewell festivities in the space station. Evidently he had grabbed the nearest article of clothing at hand as he had hurriedly rushed out of his cabin. There he stood, hands in pockets, with gray disheveled hair, letting his gaze wander around the circle of men assembled in the command center.

  “Rohan,” he said in an unexpectedly soft voice. “Will you come with me, please.”

  Rohan stepped closer, automatically pulling himself up as he did so. The astrogator turned around and walked over to the door. They strode down the corridor, one after the other, and through the ventilation shaft they could hear above the soft hiss of compressed air a dull murmur, the irritated voices of the men on the lower levels.

  The Conversation

  Rohan had not felt any surprise at the astrogator’s invitation. He entered the commander’s cabin. Rohan was not a frequent visitor to the cabin, but Horpach had summoned him aboard the Invincible and received him here after his lonely return to the crater. Such an invitation usually meant something unpleasant. At that time, though, Rohan was still suffering too much from the aftereffects of the catastrophe to fear his commander’s anger. Moreover, Horpach had not blamed him at all, but had interrogated him quite thoroughly as to the circumstances surrounding the cloud’s attack. Dr. Sax had taken part in the conversation. He had surmised that Rohan had been spared only because he had fallen into a state of stupor which limited the brain’s activity, so that the cloud had assumed him to be wounded and thus rendered harmless. And the driver Jarg, in the neuro-physiologist’s opinion, had been spared merely by accident, since his flight had taken him beyond the area where the attack had occurred. Terner, however, who had tried almost to the very end to defend himself as well as the others by shooting with the laser guns, had acted dutifully according to the rules. This very behavior had been his undoing, paradoxically enough, for his brain had continued to function normally and so drew the cloud’s attention to him. To judge by human standards, the black cloud was blind, of course, and man represented nothing to it but a mobile object like any other, which indicated its presence by the electrical potential of its cerebral cortex. Horpach and the physician had even considered protecting the men by placing them in artificial paralysis with the help of chemical preparations. But Sax thought that the effect would occur too late in case an “electrical camouflage” should be needed, and to send the men out on a mission already in a state of stupor would not be advisable at all. In the end, the entire interrogation showed no positive results. Rohan had the impression that Horpach intended to return to the problem at some future date.

  Rohan stopped in the middle of the cabin, which was twice as large as his own. On the wall he saw the microphones for the intercom and the direct hook-up to the command center. Besides that there was no other indication that the spaceship’s commander had been living here for years. Horpach took off his coat. Underneath he was wearing trousers and a net undershirt. The thick, gray hairs of his broad chest poked through the netting. Horpach sat down near the spot where Rohan was still standing. The commander leaned heavily on the table, which was empty except for a small, well-thumbed, leather-bound book. Rohan’s glance wandered from the little unknown book over to the commander, and it seemed to him that he saw Horpach for the first time. Here was an utterly exhausted man who did not even attempt to hide the trembling of his hand as he touched it to his forehead. And suddenly Rohan realized that he did not know this man at all, under whom he had been serving for the past four years. It had never occurred to him to wonder why there were no personal effects in the commander’s cabin, the kind of silly trinkets that men would drag along with them on their trips through the universe, souvenirs of their childhood or their homes. At this moment, Rohan seemed to understand why Horpach owned nothing of the kind, why there were no old photos hanging on the walls, showing the faces of those close to him who had remained behind on Earth. Horpach did not need this sort of thing, for Earth was not what he called home. Perhaps he regretted this fact now for the first time in his life? The powerful shoulders, his strong arms, his solid neck did not reveal his age. Only the skin of his hands was old; it was thick and lay in chapped wrinkles around the joints. The skin there turned white as he spread out his fingers, observing the slight trembling with apparently tranquil, tired interest, as if he were noticing something that previously had been unknown to him. Rohan could not continue to watch. But Horpach bent his head, looked in his eyes and murmured with an embarrassed smile: “Seems I overdid things a bit.”

  It was not so much the words that startled Rohan as the tone the astrogator used and his general behavior. Rohan did not reply. He stood there as Horpach rubbed his hairy chest with his big hand and added: “It’s probably better this way.” And a few seconds later he spoke with surprising frankness. “I didn’t know what to do.”

  This was shocking. Rohan thought he had known for days that Horpach was just as helpless as the rest. However, now he came to realize that he had known nothing, and had in fact believed that the astrogator was always several steps ahead of the others, because that was the way things were supposed to be. And now the commander’s true nature was demonstrated to him doubly: on the one hand he saw Horpach’s half-naked body, this tired body with the trembling hands that he had never seen before, and at the same time he heard the words that confirmed his discovery.

  “Have a seat, son,” said the commander. Rohan sat down. Horpach got up, stepped over to the wash basin, splashed water over his head and neck, dried himself quickly and with vigor. Then he put on a jacket, buttoned it and pulled up a chair at the table across from Rohan. He regarded Rohan with his colorless eyes that perpetually watered as if in a strong wind, and asked casually; “How about your … immunity? Have you been examined?”

  So that’s what he’s after, Rohan realized in a flash. He cleared his throat. “Naturally I’ve been examined, but the physicians couldn’t find anything. Sax was probably right. He thought it was probably due to stupor.”

  “Well, well. Didn’t they have anything else to say?”

  “Not to me directly. But I heard them talking among themselves about why the cloud would attack a man only once and then leave him to his fate.”

  “Interesting. And?”

  “Lauda suspects that the cloud can distinguish the normal from the injured on the basis of the electrical activity of the brain. The brain of an injured person, according to Lauda, shows the same activity as that of a newborn baby. Approximately, at least. Apparently I presented a very similar picture while I was in a state of shock. Sax thinks you could make a fine metal net that could be hidden under the hair, and have it emit weak impulses, like those in a brain injury case. That way it would be possible to elude the cloud. But that’s just a theory. No one knows whether it could really be done. They would like to conduct some experiments but they don’t have enough crystals for it. The Cyclops let us down too…”

  “All right, then.” The astrogator sighed. “I really wanted to discuss something else with you. But this is strictly between the two of us. Is that clear?”

  “Yes,” Rohan answered slowly, and the tension returned.

  The astrogator averted his eyes. It seemed difficult to make a start.

  “I am still undecided,” he began suddenly. “Some people in my place would simply flip a coin: leave or remain. But I don’t want to resort to that. I know you don’t always agree with me.”

  Rohan was just about to answer but Horpach cut him off with a wave of his hand.

  “No, no… This is your chance. I’ll leave the decision up to you. I’ll do whatever you decide.”

  Horpach looked him straight in the face, then quickly hid his eyes again under his heavy eyelids.

  “What … me?” Rohan stammered. He had expected anything but this.

  “Quite right, son. You. This is confid
ential, of course. It’s a deal, then. You make the decision and I will execute your orders. I’ll justify everything before the executive board at the space station. It’s a good deal, isn’t it?”

  “Are you serious?” asked Rohan, trying to stall for time, for he knew what the answer would be.

  “Of course I am. If I didn’t know you, I would give you more time to make up your mind. But I know that you have your own thoughts about things and that you’ve already come to a decision. Since I can’t wheedle it out of you, I insist that you tell me what it is, now, on the spot. That’s an order. At this moment, you are the commander of the Invincible… Is this too sudden for you? All right, I’ll give you one more minute to think it over.”

  Horpach got up, walked over to the wash basin, rubbed his palm across his cheeks so that his stubbly beard rustled under his fingers, and without further ado started shaving with his electric razor. He looked into the mirror.

  Rohan’s first reaction was to feel furious at Horpach for being so ruthlessly inconsiderate, for giving him the right—no, rather forcing the obligation on him—to make a decision, but at the same time tying his tongue and relieving him of all responsibility right from the start. He knew Horpach well enough to realize that everything had been thoroughly planned in advance and that nothing could be changed now. The seconds passed, and he had to speak up, now, at once, but nothing came to mind. All the arguments he would liked to have flung in the commander’s face, all the objections he had prepared like so many brick-bats during his nocturnal ruminations, had suddenly vanished into thin air. The four men were no longer alive—that was almost a certainty. If only that “almost” did not exist, then they need not consider anything, need not deliberate back and forth. They simply could fly away at dawn. But now this “almost” assumed ever larger proportions in his mind. As long as he had been on a par with Horpach, he had felt they should leave immediately. Now he felt incapable of forcing from his lips the order to take off. He knew that would not mean the end of the affair with Regis III, but really just the beginning. It had nothing to do with justification before the executive board at the space station. These four men would haunt the spaceship and things could never be the same again. The crew wanted to go back. But then he remembered his nocturnal roamings through the Invincible and realized that after a certain time the men would start thinking of it again and discuss it among themselves. They would say: “You see? He took off and left four men behind.” Nothing else would count. Each man needed the certainty that the others would not abandon him under any circumstances. Everything else was expendable, except for the crew. It did not really matter what else one might have lost, but the entire crew had to be back on board—the dead as well as the living. This was not one of the rules to be found in the official service manual. Yet spaceflight would not be possible without such an unwritten code.

  “I’m listening,” said Horpach as he put away his electric razor and sat down across the table from Rohan.

  Rohan moistened his lips. “We ought to try…”

  “What?”

  “To find them.”

  Finally it was out. He knew the astrogator would not contradict him. Rohan was now actually firmly convinced that Horpach must have counted on this, that he had even arranged it this way. In order not to have to bear the risk all by himself.

  “The four men. I understand. Good.”

  “But we need some plan. Something sensible.”

  “We’ve been sensible all along,” countered Horpach. “And you are well aware with what result.”

  “May I say something?”

  “Go ahead.”

  “A little earlier tonight I listened in to the deliberations of the strategists. I heard—no, never mind, it doesn’t matter. They’re figuring out various ways to annihilate the cloud, but it isn’t our task to destroy the cloud. We should rather concentrate on searching for the men. If we go ahead with an antiproton massacre, not one can possibly live through such a hell, if any of them are still alive. Not one. It isn’t possible.”

  “That’s what I think, too,” the astrogator said with emphasis.

  “You too? That’s good… Well, then?”

  Horpach was silent. Then he asked, “Have they found some other solution?”

  “The strategists? No.”

  Rohan wanted to ask another question, but he could not muster up sufficient courage. The words would not pass his lips. Horpach looked at him, as if he were waiting for something. But Rohan did not know what to say. Could the commander possibly assume that he, Rohan, would come up with something better, more perfect than the scientists, than the cyberneticists and the strategists with their electronic computers to help them? That was sheer nonsense. Yet the commander kept patiently staring at him. Neither of them spoke. At regular intervals came the drip-drip-drip of the faucets, uncommonly loud in this complete stillness. And out of this silence that hovered between the two men something rose, brushing against Rohan’s cheeks with its icy breath. And now his whole face, from his neck to his jaws, cramped together, shrank, became too narrow, as he gazed into Horpach’s watery, ancient eyes. He saw nothing but these eyes and he knew what he had to do.

  Slowly he nodded his head, as if he had said yes. Do you understand? the astrogator asked with his eyes. I understand, replied Rohan with a silent glance. But the clearer things became to Rohan, the more he felt that no one had the right to request something like this from him, no one, not even he himself. He maintained his silence, he did not speak, but now he pretended not to know anything, not to have even the faintest idea. He clung to the naïve hope that he would be able to deny what had passed back and forth in their glances, for it had never been spoken out loud. He might feign lack of comprehension, for he knew, he could feel it, Horpach would never be the first to speak. But the old man saw through him, he was aware of everything. Thus they sat across from each other without moving. Horpach’s glance softened. It held now neither expectation nor coercive urgency, only compassion, as if he wanted to say: All right, I understand. It’s just as well.

  The commander lowered his head. One more second, and the unspoken words, the agreement between them that only silent glances had implied, would vanish. Both could pretend that nothing had ever happened. But the lowered head tipped the balance. Rohan heard himself say: “I’ll go.”

  Horpach sighed deeply, but Rohan did not notice. He was aghast at his own words.

  “No,” said Horpach, “I won’t let you go this way.” Rohan was silent. “I couldn’t tell you,” the astrogator began. “I could not even look for any volunteers. I have no right to do such a thing. But now you know for yourself that we can’t simply take off from this planet. Only a single person, all alone, can walk into that area and hope to come out again. Without protective helmet, machines or weapons.”

  Rohan heard the commander’s voice as from a great distance.

  “I’m going to explain my plan now. You can think about it. You may reject it—the whole thing is still simply between the two of us. This is the way I envision it: an oxygen container made of silicone. No metal. I’ll send two unmanned cross-country vehicles. They will act as a decoy for the black insects and will be destroyed by the cloud. At the same time a third vehicle will start out with one man. This is the most dangerous part, because he must keep as close as possible so as not to waste any time for the march through the desert. The oxygen supply will hold out eighteen hours. Here are some photograms of the entire ravine and its surroundings. I think it would be advisable to follow a different route than on the previous expeditions. Drive as close as possible to the northern rim of the high plateau and then descend on foot over the rocks into the upper part of the ravine. If they’re any place, that’s where they would be. They could have made it there. The terrain is difficult, full of caves and crevices. In case you should find all of them or even just one…”

  “That’s it. How shall I transport them?” asked Rohan and he experienced a fleeting smugness. This is where th
e plan would fall apart. How ready Horpach was to sacrifice him…

  “You’ll carry along some suitable narcotic. Something to stun them. Of course, you’ll use it only if they refuse to walk. Fortunately, they all can walk in that condition.”

  Fortunately, thought Rohan. He clenched his fists underneath the table so that Horpach would not notice it. He was not afraid, not yet. Everything seemed too unreal.

  “Should the cloud become interested in you, then you must lie on the ground and remain rigid. I have thought of some medication for such an eventuality, but it would take too long to take effect. That leaves only the protective head gear, the current simulator that Sax mentioned.”

  “Have they built one already?” asked Rohan. Horpach understood what his question implied, but he remained calm. “No, not yet. But we can make one within an hour. Just a network you can hide in your hair. A small instrument that will produce minute electric currents. It can be sewn inside the collar of your spacesuit. I’ll give you one more hour now. I would give you more, but with each additional hour their chances of rescue grow less. They’re small enough to begin with. When will you reach a decision?”

  “I have already made up my mind.”

  “Don’t be foolish, son. Didn’t you hear what I just said? What I told you earlier was only to make you understand that we must not yet take off from this planet.”

  “You know I’m going to go.”

  “You won’t go if I don’t permit it. Don’t forget that I am still commander of this ship. We are facing a problem here and any personal ambitions must take second place to it.”